Meanwhile, in Uganda...

[cigsandcoffee]

Exempting the good work and charitable donations flowing there by many people of world faiths, religion is not being kind to Africa...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5129350.stm

LRA victim: 'I cannot forget and forgive'

Following recent comments from Lord's Resistance Army rebel leader Joseph Kony in which he denied committing atrocities, Ugandan Ochola John, 25, responds by telling his story. He was abducted by rebels from his village, Namkora in northern Uganda, which was attacked in February 2002. During the attack 50 people were axed to death and he was one of 35 abductees.

I wish I could be born again. It hurts me to see my reflection because of the way I now look. The memories of it all are so painful. It was in the night when I saw a number of torches flash at me. I was commanded to lie down facing the ground. As I did so, the rebels began raiding other houses around me. They arrested many - tying, and lying the victims on the ground in three lines. People were screaming from all corners of our village.

Two men were tied and forced onto the ground where their heads were joined together. The rebels tried to force me to pick up a log and hit their heads but I refused so one came for me with a knife and cut off my left ear. He accused me of being a government soldier and said that I would be finished off if I failed to smash their heads.

But then, they started smashing the people's heads themselves. I was put in the middle as they smashed the people's heads.

More horror at link...

[rockymountaindem]

1. Shit...

All the people responsible for that should be shot.

[cigsandcoffee]

2. I couldn't even begin at guessing how to solve this.

I fear that strife in these places will be neverending, and forgotten about by much of the rest of the world.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

3. Uganda, Zimbabwe, Congo, etc. Africa is the unknown world.

Thanks to our media which has it's focus on celebrities and their antics or our upstanding politicians saving us from flagburners, immigrants, and gays.

[cigsandcoffee]

4. Well, even here, it seems there just isn't much interest.

America is so divided over internal political wars that the larger world gets lost in the shuffle.

[Yollam]

5. It is sad.

If Clinton was in office, all our troops would not be stuck in the Iraq quagmire, and some serious peacekeeping could be done.

:(

[cigsandcoffee]

8. I really don't know if sending troops in to that mess...

...would do any good at all. The area is so enormous and chaotic that it would be difficult to organize and maintain acceptable security.

I think the answer might have more to do with heavy pressure on leaders and governments, but can't say that this is at all an educated opinion.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

6. "Frontline" did a segment last nite about Zimbabwe.

Virtually a hopeless situation. 1000% inflation. Opposition splintered. "Illegal" immigrants by the thousands fleeing to South Africa and being forcibly returned. Etc, etc, tragically, etc.

[TornadoTN]

7. I hate to admit it, but I overlooked Africa before

I overlooked Africa a lot before I actually travelled there and was able to speak to some of the people that are affected by the circumstances that plague the continent. I went to Johannesburg and all around South Africa on business, but took an offer of one of our partner companies to travel the continent as part of our business process. Seeing Africa up close and personal is something that will stay with me forever, yet, through all the beauty of the place and the people, there is a certain sadness that permeates the people that I met. It is almost as if they realize they have been forgotten by the rest of the world, left to fend for themselves the best way they know how.

When I hear my Neocon business associates and others that seem to dismiss Africa as primitive or somehow second-rate, it truly hurts and outrages me at the same time. These people have so much to give the world - lessons that many of us could learn from today - yet they try to get by in a world that turns a blind eye to them and merely gives their plight empty lip service. The human condition across the continent seems to be turning towards the worse while the world turns their back. How long are we going to let these people, our human race, go unnoticed and tear each other apart in blind power grabs?

How about actually doing something right in the world and stopping the senseless violence in Uganda? How about promoting business, self-sufficiency and prosperity throughout these countries, rather than taking what we merely want and leaving the people that provide it left in the cold?

Sometimes I really wonder if man is still evolving, or have we stopped the process with ignorance and selfishness and actually started devolving.